


Caves, Clones and Crazy

by thegreatblondebalrogslayer



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 14:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14522166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatblondebalrogslayer/pseuds/thegreatblondebalrogslayer
Summary: Taking a more Norse mythology based route, this story follows Loki as he uses clones and cunning to get revenge on Asgard. Until his plan goes terribly wrong because of course it does. Featuring insanity, poisonous snakes, morally questionable clones and more.





	Caves, Clones and Crazy

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of a fix it for infinity wars, really only for parts if it. Vague depictions of violence and murder ahead.

Thanos’s hand was gripped tight against Loki’s neck. If he had had any more air, Loki would have laughed at the situation. The Mad Titan may have thought he would be besting Loki, and more importantly Thor, by killing Loki but he was wrong. In killing Loki, he would set him free.

Thanos, in the brief yet memorable time that Loki had known him, seemed to understand people. He understood their drives and motivations. But Loki had none. Not anymore. In this, Thanos could never beat him. Or so he thought.

Thanos squeezed tighter around his neck and whispered in his ear. To anyone else it may have seemed as if he was gloating. But Loki heard his words and knew otherwise.

“You may think I set you free in killing you, but I do not. I send you back to your cage, to your cave of madness and spite.” Thanos whispered in his ear.

Loki felt a sense of dread but could not hold on to it. He couldn’t hold onto anything. His head grew light. His neck hurt but he knew it would be over soon. He allowed himself one last glance at his brother, his king, and as Thanos squeezed tighter one last time he closed his eyes.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Loki lay under the stars. When he had been a boy he had often done the same, naming the stars to pass the time. As an adult he rarely did the same. He knew he did not have much time left, this was how he chose to spend the rest of it. They were coming for him.

It really had been an accident, one not even remotely his fault. How could he have known that one small plant was the only thing precious, perfect Baldur had not been protected from? Besides, it hadn’t even been him that had poisoned Baldur with it.

He hadn’t even been the one to suggest it. He had merely pointed, as the others who had already been playing their idiotic game for hours, that perhaps the thing to harm Baldur would be something that was seemingly harmless. He had the misfortune of being right.

As soon as Baldur began his fall to the floor, Loki knew what would happen next. He would be blamed for the incident as he often was. But this was not something he could get around, it was Baldur. Perfect Baldur, who the gods had already gone out of their way to protect. No, he needed to run. To escape.

Before the body had even touched the floor, Loki had teleported away. He didn’t know what to do. He needed to run, but where? He could not stay and fight.

Should he go to Vanaheim? No, the people there had always been kind to him and he did not want to incite Asgard’s wrath on them. Midgard was too empty, he would be found easily amongst the mortals there who had barely begun their existance. He had nowhere to flee.

In the end, he went home. Sigyn greeted him at the door, a smile on her face until she saw his troubled appearance. He told her all that had happened. She was scared, but brave. Their children were already in bed. He told her to go back inside, if they found him alone they would only punish him. He hoped.

They found him laying under the stars. He saw the fury on their faces. Odin’s look of betrayal. He knew there was no use contesting their judgement, so he didn’t.

Until they dragged his family out from his home. Then he began to scream. Sigyn was crying silent tears, she did not deserve this. His sons were terrified. They were mere children. The Asgardians sneered at them, no doubt looking down on his male children shedding tears.

Loki was forced to kneel before Odin and his mob. He looked up and stared into Odin’s eyes. Odin, his shield brother. His kin by choice. He felt betrayed. Yet, he was not surprised. Odin had always had his own particular brand of cruelty.

They dragged him to the Bifrost where they were transported to a cave. Loki did not know what realm they were on. The cave was not particularly hot nor cold. That ruled out Jotunheim and Muspelheim. Two planets ruled out of billions.

Loki was dragged to a stone slab and held down above it. Odin stood before his sons and then slaughtered them before his eyes. Loki could scream no longer. Sigyn wept. Odin used the remains of his children to create Loki’s bindings.

It was dark magic, darker than anything Loki had been accused of. The hypocrisy of Asgard knew no bounds.

Tyr brought forth a venomous snake which was enchanted to hang above Loki. The snake would slowly drip venom onto him until his sentence ended or he died. Whichever came first.

An Asgardian gave Sigyn a bowl. Her punishment was to catch the venom before it landed on him. Once the bowl was full she would have to empty it and listen to his screams as the venom landed on him. It was cruel.

After Odin cast a final enchantment over them, Loki cared not what at this point, he leaned in closer to Loki. He whispered in his ear “You took my son, now I have taken yours. Know now that you brought this upon yourself.”

Loki managed to speak for the first time since being dragged into this wretched cave. “Your calculations are incorrect, dear friend. You have taken two of my sons while you accuse me of taking only one of yours.” He sneered at Odin.

Odin gave him one last glance before leaving the cave. If Loki had cared enough to look, he would have seen a concerned look on Odin’s face.

Sigyn wept still.

“I am sorry.” He said to her, tears dripping down his face.

She nodded, “it is not your fault.”

“But still.” He said, flinching as venom landed on his face. She nodded and readjusted her bowl.

They had time. Time to plot. Time to mourn. And if Loki knew anything, he knew that he would get revenge on Odin. He would make it even. Odin had taken two of his sons, Loki would take another. It was balance after all.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark. Had been for centuries. He'd gone mad quite long ago. It was to be expected but still, it irritated him. It hadn't been all bad. For a while at least he'd had Sigyn. She had been the only light in the darkness for so many years. Her devotion to him overpowered her hatred and anger at the sight of the remains of their son's binding him down.

For the first century, whenever her arm would accidentally brush against them, she would flinch away. He hated it. After the second century she barely even blinked at it. She was becoming a ghost of herself. He hated this even more.

They had both spent the first century infuriated. He with the other gods for their refusal to see the truth. She with him for his need to tell it, and with them for their denial. After the third century her anger began to fade away. His did not.

Her anger faded, but she faded along with it. On what was, approximately there was no foolproof way to keep time in this place, the fifth century he told her to go. She would not. He told her it was killing her. She didn't care. For the first time in centuries, he wept.

Decades past. He continued to beg her to leave his side, she refused. "The others have abandoned you," she said "I will not." He wept once more.

She did not last another decade before she faded. His daughter came to collect her. She knelt beside him and spoke in her unique voice that was both a hideous rasp and a delightful bell. "I will watch over her father, as she once did for me. Stay strong." She whispered these words to him, then with after a kiss to his forehead she gathered up his wife and vanished.

He wept once more. But this time, he was alone. Time passed sluggishly. When Sigyn had been with him she had caught most of the acid dripping from the snake onto him. Now there was no barrier between himself and it. Were he anyone else, the injustice of it would have driven him mad. 

 

But he was not anyone else. So, he planned. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Loki had been in his cave for a very long time. In this time, he had grown apart and closer to his wife. Then he’d lost her. He’d mastered magics previously unknown to himself. He taught himself how to make clones of himself. They were ranged in varying degrees of sentience. Some were hardly more than a mirage.

Others were capable of holding conversations. This helped ease the time some. None of them could free him from his bonds. He suspected that Odin had enchanted them to where only the King of Asgard could remove them. Loki began to plot, to test his abilities. To test his clones.

While he himself could not leave this wretched cave, it appeared they could. His first attempt ended with his clone teleporting away only to not be able to get back to Loki. He swore as he ended the spell sustaining the clone.

It took many attempts before he perfected his spell. He had created a clone that was essentially himself. This clone he could control with his mind, it was essentially an empty shell. He smiled to himself, his revenge was nearly upon him.

But he wanted to make it hurt. He knew that Odin cared for few so much as he did his family. It was part of the reason his punishment for Loki’s perceived crimes had been so extreme. The only thing he knew would cause Odin as much suffering as he himself suffered was betrayal from within his own family.

Loki smirked as he came up with the perfect scheme. He would use one of Odin’s wars with the frost giants. He would have one of his clones plant a babe version of himself where Odin could find it. He knew that Odin would take mercy on the child, fool that he was.

Odin, missing having another son of his own would take the child in. It did help Loki’s plan that his father had been a royal amongst the frost giants. Loki had the markings of the royal frost giants when wearing his Jotun skin. Odin would take the child in on both moral and strategic grounds. He would have both a son and a hostage.

To any other, Loki knew his plan would seem foolish. But he knew Odin. And Odin was a fool, making the plan fit perfectly.

 

Loki smirked, he would finally have his revenge. His clone would grow up within Odin’s court and strike Odin’s son when it would hurt Odin the most.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Loki should have known that plans never go quite the way you think the will. Especially when Thor was involved. He had grown… fond of him. He hated to think it, but it was true.

Asgard remained as hypocritical as it had all those years ago when he roamed it freely. But there were a few golden apples amongst the rest. His fool of a not quite brother Thor, while arrogant and cruel had potential to be a good king. And Frigga. He had never spent much time with her before his imprisonment, but her kindness overwhelmed him.

Odin was not one of these golden apples. Odin was as foolish as ever. His cruelty had softened with age but that did not make Loki like him anymore. He put on a good façade when dealing with his ‘father’. The younger son dying for scraps of attention. Odin ate it up. He never truly understood the serpent at his feet, waiting to lash out against him.

Odin had even named him after himself. The irony of it made Loki want to cry but he restrained himself.

When it came time for Thor’s coronation Loki began to set his plan in motion. He had changed a few things over the years. He was patient and flexible in his destruction.

Once Thor’s coronation had commenced, Loki had orchestrated a distraction to teach Thor and Odin a lesson. He had not expected Odin to cast Thor out. He had planned to strike at Odin during the ceremony. To watch the light go out in his eyes as he comprehended the betrayal. Loki cared not if he understood that it was him all along, the original Loki and the new one in one body.

Of course, once Odin had sent Thor to earth everything had gone off the rails. Loki revealed to Odin that he knew of his adoption and his true heritage. Loki had played it as one would expect him to react after being lied to for so many centuries. The destruction of Jotunheim was more of an after thought really. And killing Laufey. At that point he wasn’t really thinking things through anymore.

What did it matter if his plan went off the rails? Besides wouldn’t it cause Odin more pain if he saw his son wreaking havoc on his home planet due to Odin’s teachings? Loki was beyond the point of caring about the innocents on Jotunheim. His children had been innocent but that hadn’t saved them from Odin’s wrath.

Surprisingly, it was not Odin who stopped him, but Thor. Thor had apparently gone to Midguard and undergone some serious ‘character development’ as the Midguardians would say. Loki wanted to laugh but he didn’t, maintaining the charade for a bit longer.

As he dangled on the rainbow bridge Loki looked down into the void. Would it not hurt Odin terribly to lose his son to the void? To know that his actions had driven him to madness that led to his death? Loki smirked.

As Odin shook his head at him, Loki made up his mind. He let go.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

As Loki fell through the void, he contemplated his life up to this point. He had more or less completed his goal of making Odin suffer as he had suffered. What was next? He could never fully escape his cave. Even know, his mind was there as well as in the void. He almost preferred the void.

Loki kept falling. He kept falling until he wasn’t even sure he was falling. Was he flying? Floating? Not moving? In his cave the snake continued to drip venom on him. Sigyn and her bowl were long gone.

 

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

 

The venom landing on his face seemed to almost echo in the void. But no, that was in the cave.

Or was the cave in the void? The void within the cave? The void of the cave perhaps?

Loki didn’t know how long he had been in the void. Or the cave. He had been in the void longer than he had been in the cave. No. Wait, that wasn’t right. He had been in the cave and the void for the same amount of time. No that also wasn’t right. It had been the cave first and then the void.

Ah yes, that made sense. Except it didn’t. Nothing made sense within the void. Loki was no stranger to madness, but this was odd even for him. The cave had existed within the confines of the universe. The void seemed to be the places in-between the universe.

 

Loki laughed.

Loki fell.

Loki of Asgard.

Loki of Jotunheim.

Loki of the Void.

Loki of the Cave.

Loki wept.

Loki was alone.

 

Until he wasn’t. From outside the void, a large hand reached in. The hand caught him.

“Shhh, rest now my child. You are safe here.” The man told him.

Loki knew he was lying. He couldn’t find it within himself to care anymore.

The man, Thanos as he called himself, took Loki in. He allowed Loki to heal and searched his mind. Thanos found many things within his mind. The most important of these things he would not use against Loki for years to come.

Thanos promised him freedom. Freedom. Loki yearned for it. To be free from his cave. Thanos promised him this freedom. Had Loki been in a better state of mind he would have realized Thanos’s double edged deal for what it was.

But Loki was tired. He agreed to join Thanos in his quest to do whatever it was he wanted to do. Loki didn’t really care. Thanos reached into his mind.

Perhaps in some strange way he had thought he was truly helping when he separated the part of Loki that had lived through the cage from the part of Loki that was of Asgard for the second time. He had not helped. He fractured Loki’s broken mind even more. Loki screamed but could not remember why.

Loki screamed within the cave as well. His mind was fractured in two. His consciousness torn between two forms. In the end most it resided in his clone’s form. But his true motivations and aspirations were kept from himself. He was reduced to a shadow of his former self.

But he did not know this. So, he went on. His plans as mad as he was. The fracturing of was waiting to be healed. But it would not be, not for a long while.

In the meantime, Loki grew angry. He grew angry with his father. With his brother. With his world. With the universe. He served Thanos until it no longer benefited him. What did he care if the Mad Titan won or lost anyways?

His plans and actions became half-baked, much like his mind. He coasted along, driving those around him to resent and loathe him. He cared not, they were nothing to him. He wanted revenge. Revenge for the lies. Revenge for the mistreatment. And revenge for something he did not understand what it was. Revenge that he had already achieved. Revenge that had driven him for thousands of years.


End file.
